Ten Things

I spend a lot of time worrying, stressing, wishing I had something I don't, etc. ... and I think that's pretty normal.  But it's also unnecessary weight to carry.  There is no return on investment.  It's so much better - and more enjoyable - to focus on the good things (the very significant or the just-for-fun).  In an attempt to provide therapy for myself, here are ten things, in no particular order, that are great about my life at the moment:

1.  School is right around the corner, and Sara is SO ready for kindergarten.  I quizzed her the other day on spelling our last name and reciting our address, counting to 100, and reading her sight words.  This girl is ready to go, and I couldn't be more excited for her.

2. I live in a house that I love.  Sure, my master bathroom looks like it's out of another decade (or another century, really), but it's big and it works, and someday when I have an extra $10,000+ hanging around, I'll update it. (There's a joke in there somewhere.)

3. Emma's speech is finally starting to blossom, which is cutting down on the tantrums.  She's still loud and proud when she has one, but communicating makes life easier.  She even uses hand gestures now when rambling about something we can sort of, maybe, halfway understand.

4. My kids have a lot of things, but I can still thrill them with a $1.89 purchase.  May simple pleasures always abound.

 

5. I really love my husband.  I know that may sound obvious or brag-gy or cliche or ... whatever ... but it's true. I know that a lot of people live in loveless marriages, and I'm thankful that I don't.  And it's not because we're so good at it or because it comes easily; it's because, even when it's hard, we choose each other every day.  I know I'm lucky to have this constant in my life.

6. I love to read and I have the means to help myself to good books.  I'm in the middle of one now, and I have one that just arrived in the mail from my sister on deck.

7. Sara continues to have a love of art.  Camp this week has been right up her alley.  Ms. Mayra said that Sara is just so excited everyday at the end of camp, and each day she has come home with a fun new "under the sea" creation.  I am so glad we signed her up for this camp.

8. This little surprise arrived from my sister earlier this week, and I immediately put it to use.  If there was a coozie that could make my Cyclones one #2, this is it.  Did I already mention simple pleasures?

9. We're starting to make plans for Christmas, which I think will be spent in Florida.  What's not to love?
10. I found a pair of inexpensive jeans at Tar-jay that fit like a glove.  I haven't had decent fitting jeans since Emma was born, and this new pair feels great.  We all know that I'm cheap and I enjoy attempting to look decent, so you can imagine my happiness at scoring this recent denim deal.

See, the good things can be big or small ... the point is that they're there if we look for them.

Sunday Funday

Lounging, Dancing, Singing.

Not pictured: cleaning the bathrooms & floors, mowing the lawn, etc.  The fun is what matters.

blog fog

Steve is out to dinner with a friend, and the girls are playing in Sara's room behind a closed door.  I'm not invited in, so I'm just sitting at the desk waiting for a scream.  In the meantime, I thought I should try to work through my recent writer's block.  We haven't had a whole lot going on, other than the fact that I've been getting back into my work routine.  It's both invigorating and exhausting.  The girls have loved having Ms. Mayra come to the house, and it certainly has made our mornings super simple.  Most days the girls are still asleep when I leave, and during the day Ms. Mayra keeps them busy with a number of activities around the house and around town.  When August 25th rolls around and everyone has to get up and out the door, we're all going to be in for a shock.

In the last couple of weeks, Steve and I have gotten hooked on the new FX show, Tyrant.  It's about a fictional Middle Eastern country and the extravagant, ruthless family who rules it.  Barry, who is the son of the president and who has been away for 20 years, returns home with his family to attend his nephew's wedding.  Of course a number of events unfold, and his California-based family remains in his home country attempting to pick up some pieces.  It's dramatic and suspenseful, and we've enjoyed watching.  We'll see where the show goes.  In other TV news, I'm looking forward to the final season of Parenthood, which returns at the end of September.  I'll be ready for the show to end, but not before I watch the remaining episodes.

Steve is the proud new owner of a Bug-a-Salt gun.  He came home from work one day so excited about this gun he ordered online to use to kill flies on the back porch.  I actually thought he was kidding.  When it arrived via FedEx a few days later, it might as well have been Christmas.  I'm sure it does actually kill bugs, but I think it's just a grown up excuse to buy toys.  I actually promised him I wouldn't post this picture, but surely this tiny betrayal won't be a big deal.

For good measure, here's one of my crazy girls.

I think Emma is just about ready to start potty training.  She tells us when she needs a new diaper, and recently she has started leaving the room for privacy when she poops.  It'll be great when diapers aren't on my Target list, but is it terrible that I'm sort of waiting for her to go back to daycare before diving all the way in?  They're just so good at it there.  I'm sorry if that makes me a terrible parent.  But she has really been admiring Sara's underwear, so maybe we'll try a pair out one of these weekends ...

That's all from me for now.  As always, there will be more to come.

Wordless Wednesday

Hot Fun in the Summertime

Today is the last day of my summer, as I head back to work bright and early Monday morning.  The girls will have five weeks at home with a sitter, and Sara has three different 1/2 day camps she'll be attending (VBS, art camp, and cheer camp).  I know they'll enjoy finishing their summer at home, where they can swim, play, and continue to sleep in.  Our weather today isn't great at all, but we've had lots of sunny days and I'm hoping for more this weekend.  In pictures, here's how we've spent our 3+ weeks of summer together ... as you can see, most of it has been on or in the water.

 

 

 

 

 

And a trip to Sonic for happy hour slushies on a total rain-out day!

It's been a relaxing few weeks, with limited structure and very little to check off the to-do list.  Now I'm back to constantly looking forward to the weekend!

Baby Emma

In case you are wondering, our house is baby-free.  We're still in diapers, of course, but as far as Emma is concerned, she's a big kid like her sister.  She will no longer sit in her booster seat at the table, which is now reserved for whichever stuffed animal is lucky enough to sit with us while we eat.  She's especially proud of her independent escapades to the top bunk to either wake up Sara or just hang out, and although she hasn't actually used the potty, she thinks she's pretty big when she sits on it.  Emma's favorite catch phrase at the moment is, "I got it!"  We hear this often since she now refuses our help with most things. Last weekend we did a little playroom overhaul, clearing out the baby toys that were just hanging around, and nobody seems to miss them ... so I guess that confirms it, right?

At less than two months from two years old, Emma continues to keep us on our toes.  Her communication is coming along, but at times she still gets frustrated and resorts to screaming (i.e. she was asking for a cup, which came out like puck, which sounded to me like book ... so we went round and round until I figured out that puck was cup ...).  I understand her frustration, but a lot of the screaming is really unnecessary, so we do our best to discipline it.  She's learning, and I know she understands because she can turn it off immediately if there's a consequence or reward on the line.  When she screams over simply not getting her way, I try really hard to power through and not give in, and it's interesting to see that lately she's been realizing more and more quickly that she isn't going to get her way if she isn't behaving.

 On the other hand, Emma can be so kind and sensitive.  She hugs hard and does a lot of little things to show her love for us, especially for Sara.  Emma loves to make us laugh by doing something silly, and she pretty much single-handedly started a family dance party the other night.  She has a total life-of-the-party quality about her that both thrills and terrifies me.

More and more lately, I find myself asking Sara to set a good example because Emma literally tries to do everything Sara does.  Monkey see, monkey do.  Sometimes Sara acts like it's a pain, but most of the time she loves showing Emma the ropes.  They tag-team it pretty well, making it clear that they'll continue to give us a run for our money for many years to come.  But that's how it's supposed to be, right?!

I'm not calling it official until "2", but I can already see it coming ... bye-bye, baby.

AWE-SOME

As it turns out, leaving Facebook before my sister's wedding turned out to be a huge mistake.  Since I'm no good at taking pictures, I had to hijack Steve's FB to find some wedding pics to share here.  To sum up the entire event in words is nearly impossible, except to say that it was AWE-SOME.  So beautiful, so fun, so perfect.  Melissa and Adam got married at Mill City Museum on the mighty Mississippi in Minneapolis, and the venue was amazing.  There was great indoor and outdoor space, a perfect dance floor, as well as space for people to sit and visit if that is what they preferred.  And after a spring where Minnesota experienced more rain than necessary (to the point of flooding in many areas), Melissa's wedding day was sunny with blue skies.  It was the first dry Saturday in many, many weeks, and I know it's because my dad was there.  For nineteen years, June 21st was a sad day for us.  On the 20th year, it became reason for celebration.  So, so perfectly memorable. 
 

Thursday evening was the rehearsal and groom's dinner.  Here's the happy couple, just days away from saying "I do":

And here's my family at the rehearsal dinner.  We're actually all looking in the right direction!  Auntie saved the day by bringing gifts of crayons, marker, and paper for the girls.

 On Friday the guys golfed while the girls got nails done and went out for a fun dinner.  Sara was so excited to get her first manicure and pedicure.  She chose glitter nail polish.

Melissa and I spent Friday night at the hotel, where we enjoyed relaxing at the hotel bar and sleeping in before wedding day beauty prep got underway.  Saturday was the big day. 

  Don't these two look perfectly happy?  Look at those smiles.  Their love was so present and just radiated through everyone there.  What a magical moment.

I have to give a huge shout-out to the Wenck cousins, who were out in full force for the event.  Coming from as far as Fargo, California, and NYC, they were all there ready to celebrate.  Who shut down the party at the end of the night when we were forced out?  The Wencks.  It was so great to be together.

Another key ingredient to the party was that one of my very favorite friends, Leigh, DJ'd the event with Mike, a fellow radio personality.  They were amazing, and an added bonus was the time I got to spend catching up with Leigh.  It had been a couple of years, but it was like we hadn't missed a beat. 

  Leigh officially went down in M & A's wedding history when she announced, "Well, security just told us we get one more song.  We told them, 'F that, we get two more'."  And we got two more.  Love.

My beautiful flower girl was nervous before her walk down the aisle, but she focused and pulled through like a practiced champ.  

 

After the ceremony, I didn't see her for most of the night because she was too busy socializing.  At one point I tried to nab her but she said, "Mom, I have to find my friends." 

She did dance with me when Leigh dedicated "Dancing Queen" to her, and she found time to hop in the photo booth with me.

And with Auntie.

 And with Grandpa.

Steve took one for the team and was on Emma duty all day and all night.  How many times could you die over this sweetness?

 The girls loved running around with their second cousins from my mom's side. (I'm telling you, everyone we wanted to see came to this wedding.  It was an unforgettable reunion).

 My cousin, Derek, captured this photo (along with others above), and I just love it.  BFFs.

I could go on and on with the pictures, but I'll stop here for now.  I know there's a picture of my family out there somewhere, but I have yet to stumble across it (look for it on our Christmas card!).